Vegan Oat Flour Pancakes (with Flaxseed)

This recipe for vegan oat flour pancakes will become your go-to whenever you want a quick, comforting breakfast! It uses simple plant-based ingredients to create a dry mix that’s pantry-stable and can easily be turned into batter.

With oat flour and ground flaxseed as it’s two main ingredients, you’ll achieve a perfect consistency every time!

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Are Oat Flour Pancakes Vegan?

Oat flour pancakes can easily be made vegan however many recipes include dairy and/or eggs. This recipe replaces eggs with ground flaxseed and dairy with plant-based milk.

Oat flour is a delicious, inexpensive way to create flavorful vegan and gluten free pancakes. With the addition of some baking soda, these pancakes become super fluffy.

Top with all your favorites; I love fresh fruit, maple syrup and some vegan butter!

Ingredients to Make Oatmeal Pancakes

The ingredient list for these oatmeal pancakes is short and simple! You probably have the necessary ingredients around already.

• Oat flour: As the name of this recipe implies, oat flour is the star ingredient! You can purchase oat flour or make your own by blending rolled oats in a food processor or blender until you reach a finely ground flour texture without any large pieces of oatmeal left.
• Ground flaxseed: This recipe uses ground flaxseed to replace egg that’s traditionally used in a pancake batter. When soaked in liquid, ground flaxseed absorbs the liquid and creates a gel – the perfect vegan egg replacement! The flax egg helps hold the pancakes together and provides much needed structure. Because these are gluten-free pancakes (gluten typically binds and solidifies ingredients) we need flaxseed in this recipe!
• Baking powder: To create a fluffy pancake texture, baking powder is an essential ingredient. This will help the pancakes lift and create air bubbles for a delicious melt-in-your-mouth consistency.
• Sugar: Sugar helps sweeten the pancakes and provides flavor. If your plant-based milk is sweetened, this ingredient may not be needed.
• Plant-based milk: This recipe uses plant-based milk as the main liquid ingredient. Any type of plant-based milk should work but I always keep unsweetened, unflavored soy milk on hand!
• Oil: Some oil helps keep these pancakes soft and delicious! I like to use avocado oil in most recipes that call for oil, but other types of cooking oil may work as well.
• Vanilla extract: I highly recommend using vanilla extract in this recipe, especially if you don’t plan to add other flavoring ingredients (see a list of my favorites below). Vanilla helps round out the flavors of these oat flour pancakes.

How to Make Oatmeal Flax Pancakes

These pancakes are simple to make but there are a few key steps and instructions to keep in mind. There are some differences to how these pancakes cook compared to traditional wheat pancakes.

Step 1: Prepare Oat Flour (if Needed)

If you have oat flour already available, skip this step. If not, you can make some quickly, easily and inexpensively at home from rolled oats.

Add the rolled oats to a blender or food processor and blend until the oats are finely ground into a powdery texture without any large pieces of oatmeal left.

To make 1 ¾ cups of oat flour needed for these pancakes, use about 2 cups of rolled oats.

Extra oat flour can be kept in an airtight jar or container in the cupboard for up to 3 months. Whenever I make oat flour I often blend extra to use in other recipes!

Step 2: Mix Batter Together

Stir together all the dry ingredients in a large measuring cup or mixing bowl that has a pour spout. This makes it so much easier to pour the batter into the pan!

Once the dry ingredients are mixed, stir in the wet ingredients. Make sure there aren’t any large clumps of dry mix left in the bowl. Scrape down all edges of the measuring cup or mixing bowl to ensure there’s no oat flour stuck to the sides.

At this point, the batter will be somewhat thin in consistency. The batter needs to sit for 2-3 minutes (up to 10 minutes) to thicken and allow the flaxseed to gel (creating that egg-replacing texture). The oat flour will also soak up liquid which helps create a soft, moist pancake!

Step 3: Cook Pancakes

To cook the pancakes, warm a non-stick pan to medium-low heat (just under the halfway point for most stoves). Avoid high heat for these pancakes as the center takes time to cook. A pan that’s too hot may burn the outsides or cook them too quickly while the centers are still undercooked.

At this point, I like to add some vegan butter or margarine to the pan for extra flavor and to prevent sticking. This is optional, but highly recommended.

Pour the pancake batter into the pan, creating whatever size pancake you like! This recipe makes about 6 medium pancakes, but I typically make 3 large pancakes instead.

When your batter is in the pan, use the back of a spoon to flatten it. This is a critical step since the batter is quite thick and won’t spread well on its own.

Allow the pancake to cook for 4-5 minutes. There won’t be many bubbles coming up like in a traditional pancake. Instead, wait for the edges of the batter to darken in color. Checking the bottom of the pancakes is helpful too; they should be a golden-brown color when ready to flip.

Flip the pancake and allow the other side to cook for an additional 4-5 minutes.

Troubleshooting this Recipe: Avoid Common Oat Flax Pancake Issues

You may have a few questions when making these pancakes. To get perfect vegan oat pancakes every time, consider the following common challenges:

1. Pancakes are too thick and not cooking through. Make sure you spread the batter to your desired thickness right after pouring it into the pan. See the video above or in the recipe card below for a visual on how to do this.
2. Pancakes aren’t cooked through. Again, make sure to spread the batter when pouring the pancakes. If the pancakes are dark on the outside and the insides aren’t cooked, the heat needs to be lowered.
3. Pancakes are cooked through but not browning on the outside. If you’re waiting for a golden-brown color and it’s not happening, the heat may need to be turned up slightly! Vegan butter also helps to get the pancakes nicely golden brown (so if you don’t cook them in some butter/ oil, they may stay very light in color). After the pancake has cooked for 5 minutes on one side, check the color. If it’s not golden brown, but the edges of the pancake look darker/ you’re sure the inside is cooked, turn up the heat.
4. The batter is just way too thick. It’s okay to add up to ¼ cup of extra plant-based milk if you find the batter way too thick. As the batter sits, it may thicken. Thick batter is okay, but some people prefer to thin the batter more after cooking the first round of pancakes.

Step 4: Serve

There are endless options for how to serve these pancakes. You can top them with anything you like. Some of my favorite options are:

• Vegan butter/ margarine
• Maple syrup
• Peanut butter
• “Protein” syrup (powdered peanut butter mixed with maple syrup)
• Sliced banana
• Fresh berries (any kind!)
• Cooked apples (check out my apple fritter recipe to see how I do this!)
• Pumpkin seeds
• Walnuts, pecans or slivered almonds
• Strawberry chia seed jam

Get creative and let me know in the comments below what your favorite vegan pancake toppings are!

Vegan Oatmeal Pancake Variations

The most important tip for this recipe is to cook the pancakes over a medium-low heat rather than a higher heat like traditional pancakes. They take longer to cook through and lower heat ensures the outsides don’t burn while the inside cooks.

Those few extra minutes are well worth it though!

As for substitutions, this recipe works with pretty much any plant-based milk although I strongly prefer soy milk! Oat milk is also an option if you like a super oatmeal-y pancake.

I highly recommend using vanilla extract to flavor these pancakes, especially if you don’t add anything else to them. However, putting delicious add-ins into pancake batter is fun and offers endless possibilities! Why not try:

• Vegan chocolate chips (semi sweet or dark chocolate)
• Blueberries (fresh or frozen)
• Cinnamon or pumpkin spice
• Chopped walnuts, pecans or slivered almonds
• Pumpkin seeds
• Cocoa powder

Make Gluten Free Vegan Pancake Mix

I love saving time in the kitchen and really love when I can double or triple a recipe to save some for later. This often means freezing leftovers, but in the case of pancakes, you can save yourself time by making your own dry pancake mix!

The main time saver for me in making pancake mix is that I can blend lots of oat flour at once (I never buy oat flour, always blend my own). Pre-blended oat flour makes for quick, easy pancakes more often than not!

To create a delicious oat flour pancake mix, simply add all the dry ingredients into an airtight container or jar. Stir or shake this up and it’s ready to go! The dry ingredients will last up to 3 months in the cupboard (or any cool, dry, dark place).

When you’re ready to make pancakes, just add the wet ingredients and cook. I like to store pancake mix in a glass mason jar then mix the batter right in the jar, saving even more time by creating fewer dishes.

Keeping Pancakes Hot while Cooking

To me, pancakes should be eaten right away. However, if you’re making a larger batch to feed multiple people, it’s nice to keep the first pancakes warm while the rest finish cooking.

The best way to do this is to warm your oven to about 250 °F and place the cooked pancakes onto a baking tray in the warm oven. Once all pancakes are cooked, take the baking tray out and you’ll have a bunch of warm pancakes ready to serve!

If you make this recipe, please rate and comment below to help others benefit from your experience!

More Vegan Breakfast Recipes

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